This invention relates to a manually engagable and disengagable lifting hook for lifting a bound package by its binding.
The present invention is an improvement on the lifting hook in U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,772. In the hook in said patent a stationary nose member projects from the shank of the hook to narrow the gap between the shank and the point of the hook and assist in preventing accidental disengagement of the hook from the binding on a package to be lifted by the hook.
Accidental disengagement is still possible however, so the primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved safety latch on such a hook to positively prevent accidental disengagement of the hook from the binding on a package to be lifted.
Additional objects are to provide convenient release means for such a safety latch and to provide release means which may be excluded from the operator's grasp on the handle when the operator is inserting the point of the hook under a binding on a package and which may be included in the operator's grasp to allow the operator to remove the hook from the binding.